Violet Turns 7.

I am going to be a stereotypical mom and say I cannot believe that my Violet is 7! It went by so fast! Just a second ago she was a wee lil bb. Every year we let Violet pick her party theme. We've had princess parties, Sesame Street parties and unicorn parties.

This year it was mermaids and pirates and I couldn't have been more excited. With a personal love of mermaids it made my heart flutter when she told me. Josh and I got to work to create a mermaid and pirate lagoon perfect for a swim party.

When you walked up to the front of the house we had signs and an X marks the spot directing people where to go. I got a lot of inspiration from other bloggers and their pinterest pins.

The lagoon was a huge hit. My mom recently moved into a new place with an incredible pool. It really helped set the seen. It was the perfect swimming hole for mermaids and pirates alike.

We set the tables to look like a Captain's table. Skulls, gems, shells and tons of snacks. We had driftwood (pretzels), goldfish, coral (rock candy, ocean jewels (candy jewelry).

We wanted to make sure the pirates had their gear so we set up a dress up station complete with eye patches, swords and hats. We made little goody bags too for the pinata.

For the drink station we made Ocean Water (blue lemonade) and Pirate Punch (punch and pineapple juice) complete with drink umbrellas and swedish fish to swim in the ocean water.

I made a treasure chest pinata full of pirate treasure. Candy jewelry, necklaces, telescopes, ocean plush dolls and so much more. The kids had a blast trying to break it open. We covered the kids eyes with 2 pirate eye patches. It was hilarious to watch.

We knew we needed a photo booth and after searching pinterest for ideas we found the shark design. We got to work to create our own version of a shark attack.

No pirate is complete without some tattoos, so we created a station to get the kids inked up.

We did not have a shortage of sweets. We made cake cupcakes, Nilla wafer clams and cake at Violet's request.

We decided the kids needed another activity so we split the mermaids and pirates on two sides and gave the mermaids sparkly pearl water balloons and the pirates had black cannon balls. This had to be one of the funniest things to watch. The kids really got into it!

We made a giant clam shell out of cardboard and paper mache for Violet's gift area throne. It was huge! She felt like a mermaid princess in her shell.

After a long day of swimming and playing we cut the cake. I wasn't thrilled with the results of the cake but for a first attempt it wasn't too bad. We made the cake marbled blue with blues and purple icing perfect for any mermaid.

It was such a fun day and Violet had a blast. Said it was the best birthday yet! Thank you so much for checking out Violet's big 7th birthday!